Introduction to Core Animation Programming Guide

This document describes the fundamental concepts involved in using Core Animation. Core Animation is an Objective-C framework that combines a high-performance compositing engine with a simple to use animation programming interface.

You should read this document to gain an understanding of working with Core Animation in a Cocoa application. The Objective-C Programming Language should be considered a prerequisite because Core Animation makes extensive use of Objective-C properties. You should also be familiar with key-value coding as described in Key-Value Coding Programming Guide. Familiarity with the Quartz 2D imaging technologies described in Quartz 2D Programming Guide is also helpful, although not required.

You can build Cocoa applications for two platforms: the Mac OS X operating system and iPhone OS, the operating system for multi-touch devices such as iPhone and iPod touch. Core Animation Programming Guide presents Cocoa-related information for both platforms, integrating the information as much as possible and pointing out platform differences when necessary.

Organization of This Document

Core Animation Programming Guide consists of the following articles:

• “What Is Core Animation?” provides an overview of Core Animation’s capabilities.

• “Layer Geometry and Transforms” describes layer geometry and transformations.

• “Layer-Tree Hierarchy” describes how the layer-tree and how an application can manipulate it.

• “Providing Layer Content” describes how to provide basic layer content.

• “Animation” describes the Core Animation animation model.

• “Actions” describes layer actions and how to implement implicit animations.

• “Transactions” describes how to group animations using transactions.

• “Laying Out Core Animation Layers” describes the constraints layout manager

• “Core Animation Extensions To Key-Value Coding” describes the key-value coding extensions that Core Animation provides.

• “Layer Style Properties” describes the layer style properties and provides examples of their visual effects.

• “Example: Core Animation Menu Application” dissects a Core Animation driven user interface.

• “Animatable Properties” summarizes the animatable properties of layers and filters.

---